Memories
by Grinder-Lector
Summary: Rabbit invites Hatchworth to look through her memory box with her. STEAM POWERED GIRAFFE
Hatchworth ran through the halls of Walter Manor. He was chasing after GG, the mischievous robot who was mostly playing pranks and causing grief to the residents of the manor.

"You can't catch me! Na na na-na na!" GG teased as she galloped. Hatchworth scowled as she laughed.

"GG, you come back here this instant! Or I will tell Peter!" Hatchworth threatened.

As much as he wanted to tell, Hatchworth wasn't a tattle tale. It would also look ridiculous if he were to cry to Peter about GG putting sugar in his sandwich. He was a man of the house. He was strong.

"You're too slow! Catch up, Hatchy!" GG continued to tease.

"Oh you little…" he didn't even continue.

They both zoomed past Rabbit's room, the door was wide open.

"Hello, Rabbit!" Hatchworth quickly said as quickly glanced in and rushed past. As he continued after the metal giraffe, he realised something had caught his eye when he looked in. He stopped running and went back to her door. When he looked in he saw the automaton sitting cross legged on the floor. In front of her was a box with a bunch of photos, letters and other things.

"Oh hi, Hatchy!" Rabbit greeted him. She patted the ground beside her, "Come in! Sit down."

Before he entered the room he looked to where GG had run to, "I'LL GET YOU BACK LATER!"

He entered the room and sat cross legged beside his sister.

"What did she d-do now?" Rabbit smirked at him.

Hatchworth scowled a bit, "she put sugar in the sandwich I was making. It is a very stupid situation. But it looked delicious before she ruined it."

Rabbit laughed and shook her head, "Poor Hatchy…"

"So whatchya doing?" He beamed at her, forgetting about his quarrel with the giraffe.

"Oh, I'm just going through my memory box. Sometimes I g-g-go to put things into it b-but end up looking at everything." Rabbit lifted a pile of photos and letters and fanned them out showing them to her younger brother.

"Oh! Find anything interesting?"

"Everything in here is interesting, Ha-Hatchworth," Rabbit replied rolling her eyes. She picked a letter from her pile and showed it to him, "for example; this is my-y-y first love letter. Just look at it. Don't read it though."

"Oh, can't I read a bit?" He whined looking over the page.

Rabbit pulled the page away, looking at her brother in silence. She squinted her eyes, "You promise not to laugh?"

"Promise!"

Rabbit looked at this paper and cleared her throat.

"De-De-Dear Rabbit,

Out of the entire show to-tonight, you stood out to me the most. You have the prettiest eyes and b-b-brightest smile. You're voice is so haunting and beautiful. I asked Steve if I could talk to you, b-b-but he said you all need to recharge. So instead I'm writing you th-this letter. I'm actually kind of glad. Letters are more traditional.

So I was wondering if you would wanna g-g-go for a walk sometime. I know you're a robot and I don't know if you go on dates, but it would make my heart soar."

She stopped and sat the letter down, "That's all you're getting to hear."

Hatchworth was blushing. Rabbit was too. He laughed a bit, "So, did you go on the date?"

"Yep. He was really sweet. He talked a lot and had an interest for flowers," she smiled as she picked up what looked like a pressed amaryllis, "he gave me this. It's pretty. B-b-but he went into great detail about the flower and a few other flowers."

Hatchworth smiled as his sister put the flower into the box, "so…did you guys…you know…kiss?"

Rabbit blushed as her head shot up, looking away from the box to her brother, "Ugh….I…I'm not going to answer that!"

Hatchworth laughed at her embarrassment. Rabbit picked up a few more pictures and put them in the box. She didn't notice that one picture floated away from the pile, landing in front of Hatchworth. He picked it up and examined it.

It was Rabbit with another automaton. She was small and pink. Her clothes were dark but her smile was bright. He had never seen this robot before. Did Rabbit have a secret friend?

"Who's this?" Hatchworth asked looking closer.

Rabbit leaned towards him, looking at the picture. She looked at the picture for a moment in silence.

"I actually don't know, Hatchy," she admitted as she leaned back, "I-I-I just have that picture. I don't know how I got it. But it's been there for as long as I can re-re-remember."

"How strange…"Hatchworth wore a look of confusion as he passed the photo back to Rabbit. He looked down at the pile again. Something caught his eye. He picked up the bit of paper and saw that there were hangman games scribbled all over it, "Oh, I remember this."

One of the answers read 'Rabbit is stoopid.' Another read 'The Spine smells like butt.' And his favourite was 'Hatchworth is the King'. It was his turn that round of course. He smiled at the memory.

"That was the day we planned to go to the fair but it was rainy!" Hatchworth beamed.

Rabbit giggled, "Re-remember how upset we were?"

"But then the humans showed us this wonderful game," he smiled. He sat the sheet back down again, "It was one of the most fun times of my life!"

Rabbit picked up a picture, her facial expression changing from a happy smile to a faint one. Hatchworth looked at the photo. It was a picture of the three automatons with an elderly looking man. The man had a hat, one that actually covered his eyes. He looked confused. The three automatons were laughing as they covered their eyes with their hats too.

Rabbit was silent for a moment. She was just staring at the picture. As she continued to look at it, her faint smile seemed to get fainter until she stopped smiling at all.

"Re-re-remember his hat didn't fit him? And it slipped down his face? So w-we-we all covered our faces with our ha-hats?" She asked.

"Yes, I do," Hatchworth answered sombrely.

"This was o-o-only a few years before Pappy…" she paused, "…passed away."

"Are you OK?" Hatchworth looked at his sister.

She had another moment of silence before answering him, "some days…it just hits me…th-that…he's gone, Hatchworth. He's not coming back…"

Hatchworth was now silent too. He kept his eyes on the picture. In his head he could see the rest of the memory move on the photo. The automatons were laughing whilst Pappy looked all around him asking why it was dark all of a sudden.

"He's still here, Rabbit," Hatchworth leaned closer to her, "We just can't see him…or hear him…or interact with him…but we can still talk to him."

Instead of a reply, Rabbit remained silent for another few seconds before choking out a sob. She let the photo fall into her lap as she buried her metal face into her hands and cried. Hatchworth didn't hesitate to put his arms around her.

"I'm sorry, Rabbit! I didn't mean to make you cry!" Hatchworth stroked her arm. His sister pulled her face away from her hands and hugged him back, burying her face into his chest. The younger automaton hugged her tightly, feeling regret for going into detail about such a touchy subject. He knew how much Rabbit missed her Pappy.

He stroked her hair as his eyes filled up with oily tears too. He sniffed a bit, "I'm so sorry, Rabbit."

She pulled away slightly, "I-I-I-It wasn't y-y-you. I just-st-st get like this s-s-sometimes."

Hatchworth pulled her back into the embrace, "It's OK. I understand. Sometimes it's good to talk. And sometimes it's good to have a cry."

Rabbit hugged him tighter as she choked a sob.

"Next time you go to his grave," he started, "you should talk to him. About how much you miss him. He would like that."

Rabbit pulled away, wiping her tears away, "I will. Th-thank you, Hatchworth."

She looked down at the picture, picking it up. She carefully put it back into the other box. Hatchworth was holding her other hand. She was about to push the box away. But something caught her eye. It was another photo of one of her adventures with her brothers. She smiled. She showed it to Hatchworth. When he saw the picture he laughed at it as they started the next discussion on the memory.


End file.
